The Greater Mysteries
by Redemption by Fire
Summary: FutureU/HiddenU (Thick with Greek Myth and Philosophy)The Eleusinian Mysteries were thought to be a secret the Ancient Greeks took with them. But Hades turned out to be more than myth. Future Robin is having trouble understanding what happened. What Zeus didn't say, what Zelena couldn't, and what destroyed a Queen. And how a candle might just save both Robins or destroy everything
1. Prologue

The Greater Mysteries

 _Here comes the place where cleaves our way in twain. Thy road, the right, toward Pluto's dwelling goes, And leads us to Elysium. — Virgil,_ _Aeneid_

 _ **Hither the Victim's Sacrifice**_

Robin was starting to be as sick of Greece, (or rather the area that had formerly been called Greece) as she was of Storybrooke. In Storybrooke, she felt suffocated by all the words unspoken. In Greece, no one seemed to be able to shut up, though they had nothing much to say.

She had come here for answers to questions: answers that no one seemed to want to share in any great detail. And she was leaving her summer abroad with little more than an excellent tan, a polished mastery of Greek, an ex-greek lover and a current affair with weed.

Robin tried not to think about how she was just falling apart like her mother, only not with the bottles of whiskey, which she avoided like the plague, refusing to drink; unless being pestered by Greek's with wine whom she wanted information from, but with the dissolving of the coil inside her that the joint provided.

It was time to leave, for no one in Greece, however, been able to tell her more than she already gleaned from books in the Storybrooke and the NYC library about the Eleusinian Mysteries. Too much was secret and lost.

Robin inhaled another puff from her joint. In two days time, she would be back on the plane to New York and back to her studies in International Affairs, where she would be preparing for her job at the UN in this troubling time where any visage of peace and compromise was to be embraced because floated away like the smoke in the wind.

The darkness was just beginning to uncoil and her thoughts to evaporate, when a man she did not recognize approached. He seemed to scan her and realized that he should be less wordy and more concise.

"I hear you are the girl who seeks _Hierá Hodós."_

Robin was suddenly alert and responded in fluent Greek. "Yes, I seek the Sacred Way. I seek more than the road however."

The old man smiled. "I have heard you are seeking more than the _kiste_ and the _kalathos_ as well. But those things must come before you seek the _Iacchus Candle._ You must be joined to the Mysteries, and then we can talk.

"Of course, are the Mysteries still performed?"

The old man smiled. "Only, if you know who to ask. Any girl seeking the Iacchus Candle must surely be the right person to find the answer. Answer me this one thing first, how did you know about the Iacchus Candle? It has been a family secret for thousands of years."

Robin frowned slightly. What to say, what would not give him the wrong idea, but yet not make him leave her with nothing? She pinched the joint into a butt and placed in on the table with her glass of water.

"Barbarians in Oz told me it existed and a surviving 1/3 of a tome on how to conduct the Eleusinian Mysteries confirmed it."

The man inhaled roughly. "There is no such tome. The penalty for sharing information about the Mysteries with the uninitiated carries a penalty of death."

Robin smiled slyly. She had him now. She mirrored the regal posture of her aunt and waited a few extra seconds while drinking the water, to hold him in suspense. "It an old tome. Written by Kore." She did not even look at him, she did not have to. A man who had not suddenly laughed at the use of Oz in a sentence was no normal Greek. "Kore, Cora, Persephone, Whichever."

"Who are you?" The man whispered. "Are you the one I am to wait for?"

Robin suddenly looked up, her curiously winning over her desire to look in control of the situation. She, however, was well practiced at the smooth and serpentine and quickly recovered. "My name is not as important as my family tree. I'll skip the father's side, it is unimportant to this end, but my mother, ah well, her mother is a Cora, and her great grandmother a Kore, and her great, great, great grandmother is a Cora. Named after our ancestor, a family tradition if you will."

The man sat down in the empty chair next to her. "So you are the heart maiden we have been waiting for."

Robin flinched slightly. _Focus on the candle_. _Do not think about what you are._

Robin shrugged, but the man had already noticed her discomfort. "You need have no fear of what you can do, as long as you have not killed. One can not become an initiate if one has blood guilt. You play a good game, but I can see in your eyes, you have not been stained."

He placed his hand on top of hers and she flinched and resisted the urge to remove it.

"Who are you?" Robin asked softly.

The old man chuckled. "I was wondering when you would ask. My name is Celeus. It is a family tradition too."

Robin nodded. She had studied her Greek Literature and Mythology well enough to know Celeus had been a King that had treated the Goddess Demeter well in her grief and had been the first to be part of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

He seemed to be waiting for her name, with a raised eyebrow.

"Robin." She sighed and looked away.

"A pretty name for a beautiful bird. You do not like your name?"

Robin shrugged. "It was my father's name. He died when I was very young, before I was even named. It..." Robin gave a light sigh and itched to pick up the joint again. "...carries a great weight to it, always defining what I must do."

"Ah, a noble father." Celeus stood up. "The only bars that can truly hold a bird however, are the ones they alight inside of...and you do not seem the sort of person who likes cages. Yet, you find yourself in them again and again. I wonder why that is?"

He began to walk off.

"Wait! Where can I find the Sacred Way?"

The old man turned and smiled. "The path was never about the road. It was about the journey."

Robin gave a soft growl. "Yes, but where do I meet you?"

"Athens, of course. Bring a _bakchoi."_

Robin stood at the historic start of the pathway with branch in hand feeling a little foolish. All the other tourists much have thought her to be selling something and kept asking what it was.

By night, she was feeling angry and having been so humiliated. Just as she was about to leave however, an old woman holding a lantern approached her. "I think Celeus is foolish to initiate a heart maiden. But maybe, my husband is right. Maybe the healing starts with or without Hades."

Robin itched to ask, but was afraid to break the spell. The woman led the way and she followed quickly. The spent most of the walk in silence, but a 21 kilometer walk was loosening Robin's iron fist on her thoughts.

Just as she was about to descend into thinking about all the tragedy in her family's life, the old woman spoke. "So Heart Maiden, if have indeed no blood guilt, where does your darkness sleep?"

Robin's throat begin to clench and her vision began blurring. She managed to gasp out. "It does not sleep."

The woman turned to face her. "Indeed. It is so thick, it seeks to suffocate you. You do not let it out to play, so it threatens suicide."

Robin's blue eyes flashed cold, but her skin flushed with heat. She clenched her teeth and swallowed a biting comeback.

The old woman shook her head. "It will kill you, you know."

"My darkness?"

"Trying to cage it."

Robin puffed air through her nose in annoyance. "So will letting it out."

The lantern light made the woman's eyes look like the sun itself. "Who is it that you hate? Father? Mother? Siblings? A Lover? It has to be someone close you."

"I am close to no one."

"Hmm... Tragic. The Heart Maiden is without heart."

"I do too have my heart inside of me." Robin protested.

"Too far inside, I see. No dick can reach it."

Robin was stunned for two seconds.

The woman then laughed more like a cackle. "Not even your own fingers can reach it. Though it is clear to see that you try often enough. Good girl, glad to see you are getting some sort of grain from your own garden."

Stupid Baubo. This was part of the tradition too. The dirty remarks.

"There's plenty of Elysium, if you know how to stroke it. Always stroke it before you poke it. Honor the Temple with a little..."

Robin gave a soft growl.

When this failed to get a laugh, the old woman stopped. She gave the heaviest of sighs. " But there is no temple is there? Your body is just a beautiful cage for a beautiful bird. Laughter can come from grief, but you have not even truly grieved."

The woman fell silent and Robin wished she'd say anything, to stop the words from echoing in her mind. _Beautiful cage for a Beautiful Bird..._

Just as Robin feared she was going to turn and flee in the other direction, abandoning her decade long quest for the comfort of another smoke, the woman turned to her and the sudden flash of the lantern stunned her for a moment.

"Maybe it's time for the kykeon. Maybe we need a moment among the barley and the pine."

They sat down on a large stone on the side of the path and the woman lit a branch of pine needles from the ground. Robin took in deep breaths, trying to steady herself. The smell of pine had always comforted her and she could not figure why. And here they were surrounded by pine.

One year for Christmas, Robin had stolen a piece of the tree and tucked inside her pillow. She hadn't been able to sleep in the many nights before, but with the branch inside her bed, she finally learned the secret to her childhood insomnia. Insomnia, which had begun to return as of late, Robin mused.

She took the offered drink, which smelled something awful. They sat there in silence like buried wheat in the ground, waiting for the night to unsteady under them.

Robin could not remember a great deal of what happened after that. Blurred images of men with light streaming from their hands, a bath in a river, and her Greek being put to the test.

Her hands were covered in dirt, oh yes, in soil, where she had planted something in the fields. Then she had seen green monkeys running around and then she had vomited up bird wings.

Yes, well _that_ had not happened.

Robin moaned and realized she back in her own hotel bed, that there were three missed calls on her phone, and that her flight left in two hours.

She was about to panic when she saw it. On top of her hotel bath towel, right by her bedside, was a Iacchus Candle. She picked it up and she could feel its powerful, but inaccessible magic. A ribbon was tied around it, which simply said, "Hither the Victim's Sacrifice," which Robin knew to be part of the ritual, but was still confusing to her.

Robin threw everything into a suitcase helter skelter like, but the candle she placed in a box she had been storing her hash (which couldn't come back with her anyway and was almost gone.) It fit perfectly and she placed it in her carryout purse. Would it be taken? Could you carry a candle?

Robin made it onto the airplane with seconds to spare and she spent the whole flight back, trying to think of ways to travel another great distance as soon as she landed.

"Neal... Hi, I was hoping you would forgive me for running off for the summer, right after...well...I found it...I know that you were hoping, well...you can either help me, or be forced to. That's really up to you. I know you will be patient. And I promise to take care of you..."

The lady next to Robin gave a weird look to Robin's phone message, but Robin didn't seem to care.


	2. Chapter 1 Pomograntes and Poppies

**Chapter 1 Pomegranates and Poppies**

Neal was pacing. He seemed to do this a lot these days. He did not know whether it was more infuriating when Robin was in a relationship with him or not. He had been unhappy when they were and unhappy when they were not. And he was always worrying about her either way.

They had fought about her lack of caring about things, they had fought about her obsession with things, they had even fought about fighting about these things.

Neal listened to the phone message again. Damn, damn, damn. On one hand, he was glad that the trip had been fruitful, on the other hand now that she had gotten what she wanted, she was going to be even harder to deal with then when she was being melancholic about not getting it.

And now, apparently, she was going to want something from him that he wasn't going to want to give. Neal was pretty sure he knew what that was and he NOT going to do it.

Clearly, Robin knew him well enough to give him a chirpy ultimatum.

 _I promise to take care of you._

Not liking the sound of this at all.

Neal decided to pay Zelena a visit before Robin's plane landed.

Neal hadn't been over at the little farmhouse in years. Robin was always avoiding making the location a place to meet. Even when they were kids, she always seemed to be ready to burst out of her home. As an adult, he knew this was because Zelena had never really recovered from whatever had happened when they were kids, with the Underworld and Hades. Neal knew that whatever had happened, had definitely been the source of Robin's obsession with Greece. Not knowing much had probably been worse than knowing.

Ugh, the house smelled like it hadn't been cleaned all summer. Stale, dusty and smelling of whiskey. Neal let himself in, the door unlocked and the magical barrier had been tailored to let him in back when they were dating.

Zelena was passed out on the kitchen table. She had clearly gotten worse in the time since Robin's departure and had been for months. Whether this was because there was no one around to fool/impress, it was a pity party because Robin had left her, or the fact that Robin being in Greece, had stirred up old trauma again, Neal couldn't possibly guess.

But she was clearly a wreck. Neal gently nudged her and then stepped back just in case. "Robin's coming home today."

Zelena groaned. "She has her own apartment."

Neal sighed. "Yes, and this is why."

It was really bad if this didn't seem to bother Zelena. "She's 28 years old, that is why she has her own apartment." Zelena picked up the glass from the night before and drained the remaining drops. "Why are you here, Neal Fu..king Nolan? Don't you have better things to do, than to bother an old woman?"

Because there was no one else to bother.

Regina was often nothing but an empty shell, her darker half having been put under a sleeping curse, leaving her looking like she was half in slumber inside. Roland had left for the Enchanted Forest and had never returned, after Robin and he had a huge fight on her 18th birthday. Emma was dying of exhaustion from keeping the fracturing town together and caring for Killian who despite being the strong man in Neal's life was now literally dying of cancer. Emma kept herself going only by the idea that Henry might need her. Excepting Henry was a grown man, in New York, whose insomnia rivaled Robin's and who survived on pain pills.

Oh, and Neal's parents. Snow never had recovered from the thought that the she had once again done the wrong thing for Regina. She had had a meltdown when Neal was 12 and had been a member of the mental ward for years. David had been on again off again with the liquor all of Neal's life and Neal never bothered to tell him important things, for there was a childhood fear that it might be what pushed him back over the edge again. Robin and he had bonded over being frequent members of Granny's little family (until she had passed when they were 16) and having a parent/s who detached themselves from living.

Suddenly, Neal was for sure what Robin was about to do... he didn't blame her, but Neal didn't think that it was good idea. Which is why someone had to help him convince her.

Just because something was possible, did not mean it was the method that should be used. Neal had kept his secret guarded, in the fear that he would be used by others looking for a quick way to make an even bigger mess in the hopes of fixing something.

But Robin had managed to find out and they had had a fight about the hungry look in her eyes every time she was reminded of it. Or at least Neal had envisioned it as a hungry look, which Robin had denied, thus the fight.

Neal could feel himself getting sick and he was so glad for the bracelet blocking his seizures. He sat down in a chair at the table to steady himself.

Zelena seemed to instantly pick up on the fact that he was on the brink and suddenly had that same look Neal had seen in Robin's eyes. She stood and reached for his arm, probably to try and rip off the bracelet so that she could be holding him when he seized.

Because Neal, would go back in time. And she wanted in on it.

Neal jerked his hand away and Zelena was too drunk and hungover to do much more than stumble over the table leg.

"Nevermind, you were right. No idea why I thought you would be of any help. Like mother, like daughter."

Zelena's eyes narrowed. "Why would want my help?" She groaned and sat down again. She magically refilled her empty glass and used magic to instantly clean the kitchen. She suddenly looked less hungover and this was likely magic too. This seemed to zap any remaining strength and she began to look a little pale, though more focused.

Neal sat back down and sighed. The rush in his head was slowing and he didn't feel like he was going to puke anymore. "Because I care about your daughter."

Zelena snorted. "She broke up with you."

"Only because I gave her an ultimatum. I wanted to settle down and build a family somewhere. I wanted her to give up this foolish idea that she needed to fix something or save the world."

There was a strange pause and then a cackle. "Oh, ho, that's real funny coming from a Charming."

Neal grimaced. "Maybe that's what destroyed the rest of them."

Zelena looked like she might actually be considering that.

"No... that wasn't the problem."

"Oh and what was?" Neal drawled.

Zelena slid another glass towards him. "They didn't take the splinter out of their own eyes first." She poured a bit of whiskey in it. "Before attempting take out the beam everywhere else."

Neal raised an eyebrow. "Are you quoting scripture?"

"Only as an insult." Zelena stared him down. Neal he wasn't getting anywhere without accepting the drink. He sipped it slowly. Ugh, he hated the burn. He had no idea how they did it.

Zelena suddenly seemed small and weak, like a deflated tire. Whatever cynical joy she had hoped to gain from watching the son and grandson of alcoholics drink whiskey was not what she had hoped for. "What would you do, if you go back in time, no consequences?"

Neal put down the glass. "I think the consequences are the only reason anyone wants to go back. Few people would use it for purely observational purposes." Henry hadn't been able to hold out for too long before abusing his privileges as Author. And it hadn't mattered in the end, because everyone had already 'ate the pomegranate seeds' which had spelled their doom. And his power was never capable of changing the past, only writing the present (or abusing it). Killian at least, seemed to be the only soul, whom Neal completely trusted not to abuse his power. He had suffered and learned and maybe death had taught him something no one else seemed to get.

Zelena opened the fridge and ate an expired yogurt. "What do you think my daughter wants to go back in time for?"

"I don't know. I'm sure you couldn't think of thousands of reasons." Neal hissed, pushing the glass away.

The table was pushed forward as Zelena stood up suddenly. "I love her!" She was suddenly angry, angrier than Neal had seen in a long time.

"Yes, well love doesn't ensure you make the right decisions. Sometimes it isn't enough!" Neal growled matched her. Suddenly, it was a fight with Robin. However, Zelena didn't punch back verbally. She seemed to lose her fight.

"Yes...I suppose that is why it doesn't really matter anymore. None of it really ever mattered."

Zelena sat back down and went right back to drinking, slamming the glass as though it were a shot.

Neal pressed further, knowing he was losing her. "Did Robin ever say why she went to Greece?"

Zelena shrugged and downed another.

"Does it have to do with Hades?"

Downing yet another, Zelena didn't even bother to respond.

Neal stood up leave. "Thanks for the chat. I'd sober up before Robin gets here. I'm sure she will be so pissed she won't tell you what she found in Greece."

Zelena stopped mid-pour. "What did she find?" She asked sweet and serpentine, her mood shifting instantly into predatory.

Neal shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm not going to like it. Said she was going accept my help or force it."

Zelena cracked a smile. "That's my girl."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of. How well did 'being just like you' turn out for your future?"

Neal knew he had her. He could feel the hum in his skin.

All the way home, Neal felt sick again, but this time it wasn't a seizure. He hated when he 'spoke her language'. His mother had been good at communicating with animals. Neal seemed to able to read people the same way. And to survive, he had learned to say what he needed to say. And Passive Aggressive Bitch didn't sit well in his gut.


	3. Chapter 2 Keeping Up with the Joneses

**Chapter 2 Keeping up with the Joneses**

Zelena was vaguely soberish, by the time that she took a walk. She had showered and had attempted to fix some real food. The walk would have to do the rest, though where she was walking to, made her wish she had nothing better to do than sit and drink.

It felt weird to have a mission again, now that Robin was an adult, it was harder and harder to find reasons to do anything other than numb herself away. Zelena had been relatively successful (she had thought) at hiding the shots when Robin had been a girl. But the fight they had before she moved into her own apartment had proved that Robin had been paying attention enough to notice the smell.

"I know why you do it." She had exclaimed before leaving for Greece. But she hadn't bothered to tell her what she thought that reason was.

Zelena hadn't pushed then, but did want to know why. She wasn't even sure she knew why. Perhaps originally it had been to numb the loss of the man she had loved, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Enough." Zelena muttered to herself. "Stop. Thinking about this never led anywhere good."

Zelena nervously (no, not nervous, she was never nervous) rang the doorbell on the familiar house.

Eleanor answered the doorbell and was shocked to say the least to see her. She gripped her advanced chemistry textbook tightly as she yelled. "Mom!" She flicked her blond hair out of her eyes and nervously pushed back her nerdy glasses as she darted her eyes about. "Dad!"

There was a groan from the living room. "Who is it Ellie?"

Eleanor turned back to look at her. "Uh, Robin's mom." She looked terrified, but Zelena found no amusement in such horror today. Everyone always feared her, that was how the story went.

"Let her in." Killian's voice had echoed back.

"Really?" Ellie twittered back. Zelena pushed past, she didn't have time for this. She marched right to the living room where she knew Killian had taken residence during his illness (Robin had told her)

Wow, he looked terrible. His hair was a little more salt than pepper and he was thin, very thin. The cancer made him look more than one foot in the grave. _So do you, I'd imagine._ Zelena shook her graying hair (was their a cute term for gingers who were graying?) to clear her thought. She didn't own mirrors any more; she didn't want to see. And she wasn't going to waste her energy on an illusion. Not anymore.

Zelena realised she was staring awkwardly.

"Not every day that we have you visit." Killian dryly rasped. "Isn't Robin on her way home today? On the 11am flight out of Athens?"

It irked Zelena so much that he knew things like this that she didn't.

"Yes...but that isn't what I came to discuss."

Killian nodded and raised an eyebrow. "So what brings you into the sunshine today?"

Zelena gave him a warning glare. He laughed. She growled. Ellie had back standing in the corner of the room jumped back.

"You have magic for Gods sake, why are you so damn frightened? In my state, you could take me easily." Zelena snarled.

Ellie bit her lip a little. "Little good, magic has done for anyone around here. I believe in science."

Zelena rolled her eyes. "You can believe in both, they are not mutually exclusive."

Killian prompted again, with a tired sigh. "What can I do for you, Zelena?"

"Nothing, you are sick and weak. I came here looking for information."

"That would be something I could do, isn't it?" Killian gave a sick cough.

"I think Eleanor might be more useful. Robin used to come here all the time. And it was only this past year that she seemed to be more obsessed with a trip to Greece than before." Zelena sat down in a nearby chair, suddenly feeling shaky.

"I don't think I have to tell you what we talk about." Ellie replied with more sass than fear and she shifted into a posture that was so Emma.

"You could hear her out at least, Ellie."

Eleanor sighed and gave her father a very annoyed teenager look. "I'm studying for my college exams right now."

"Which you will ace, my little nerd," Killian smiled at his daughter in a way that made Zelena sick with shame. "I don't understand a bloody thing that your book says, but then you could never get the hang of sailing so..."

Eleanor smiled and sat down on the edge of her father's medical bed. She seemed to forget Zelena for a moment, lost in some memory in her father's gaze.

She turned sharply when Zelena annoyingly coughed. "I'll tell you this and then you have to leave. Robin has not wanted to go to Greece as of this year, she's wanted to go forever. Only, she seemed to feel like she was on to something, so she saved up the money."

Zelena frowned. "Do you know why she wanted to go so bad?"

"Didn't you ask her?" Ellie quipped back.

"We...fought about it." Zelena retorted. "She gave a bunch of ...it's beautiful, it's full of history, I can practice Greek...la la la..." Zelena stopped suddenly. "Who's Empo...dock..lese?"

"Empedocles." Eleanor corrected. "A Greek philosopher who threw himself into a volcano to prove he was immortal...he was not."

Zelena paled slightly, and Eleanor brushed forward. "He was the father of early Physics, though only a few of his ideas were correct. He wrote on such topics as the dynamic cosmic cycle, Reincarnation, Optics and Matter Conservation."

Zelena blinked and hissed. "English!"

Ellie gave a humpf. "That was English. I already dumbed it down for you."

"Eleanor Ava Jones!" Killian snapped.

"She should have cared years ago!" Ellie's voice cracked and a thick, suffocating silence fell on the room.

Zelena stood up, set to march off with some witty retort, unable to bear the tension. But her feet gave way and she suddenly felt ready to puke. "Not here." She hissed under her breath. "You are enough of a fcking embarrassment as it is..."

Killian made a motion to get out of the bed, but Eleanor beat him to it, hissing at him to stop exhausting himself.

Eleanor's touch revolted her. "I did care..." Zelena protested, but her stomach turned. "I loved her..."

"You don't even love yourself or you wouldn't keep continuing to suck down your toxic brew." Ellie growled. "But you can't destroy yourself, only prolong the agony. Matter Conservation. Matter can not be created nor destroyed. Only transformed or converted."

Robin had spent so many days and night here, she had joked that Killian was her substitute father. But it had been so much more than that. Here she had sought answers. Eleanor did, only she latched onto science to explain things. Robin had wanted comfort here. Here she learned about the Mysteries of Life. Not at Home.

Killian seemed to be deep in thought when she looked back up after being led back to the chair. Oh, how she wanted whiskey...she could feel the panic rising up, like she had swallowed a flock of birds.

"Ellie, Matter can _**Never**_ be created or destroyed?" He whispered.

"Well, technically it can be converted to energy, which can't be destroyed, but yes, nothing is capable of being lost in a closed system."

"Can science convert energy back into matter?" Killian probed again.

"No Star Trek transporters yet." Ellie quipped with a smile. "Most scientists think it wouldn't be worth it. The energy that you would have to expend would outweigh the cost of even transforming one photon back into matter."

"I'm going to pretend I understood that." Killian gave a soft laugh. "I love it when you talk nerdy, even if I don't get it."

Zelena suddenly wanted to cry...(no destroy and break something!) How dare they live happily? How dare they have a little darling family who loved and support each other when nobody else ever had...least of all herself...and

She was jealous of a man dying of cancer. Gods, would the envy never disappear?

"How's Henry?" She inquired.

The downtrodden look on Killian's face was enough to know that Henry must be falling further and further down hill.

She suddenly felt invigorated. "I see, how sad. Well, I better be going and not bother you two anymore. Wouldn't want to get it way of more studying. Endless studying." She flashed a wicked grin and tried to as unaffectedly walk proudly to the door as possible. "My daughter is arriving any hour now."

On the way home, she couldn't help feeling like she had missed something...but her head hurt too much to remember.


End file.
